Review : Blade Kitten episode 1

I've been waiting a long time to play this... well it felt like a long time but I've only been into Blade Kitten since early this year. This is Krome's second IP and has spent a lot of time in development. I'll try to be as non bias as possible but I make no promises because I am a big fan of Blade Kitten and this game fortified it. Here's my review of Blade Kitten episode 1.

Blade Kitten episode 1 takes place a couple of years prior to the comics created by Space Captain Steve aka Steve Stamatiadis who works at Krome. Kit Ballard is a breaker(mercenary) who has traveled to Hollow Wish(a synthetic shell type planetoid) to take a bounty hunting mission on Terra-li a Squamatan who is apparently causing trouble. After registering herself for the mission a woman named Justice shows up, steals Kit's Breaker key and gets Kit into a world of trouble. I'll stop talking about the plot there because it'll just spoil it.
The game has a simple control scheme with lots of tricks you can do. Kit can climb most surfaces, double jump and do a ground slam to name a few of the techniques in her arsenal. You can get the control scheme and find out the techniques in the How To Play option in the start menu. The game is a 2D (or 2.5D if your fussy about the details) action platformer that takes a little bit from many classic games but Castlevania will be the one you think of first but I'd go with the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Castlevania mixed in for good measure. Regardless the game focus on exploration, collecting money, precision during exploration and combat. Combat will feel easy during the early stages of the game but as you progress the numbers game will catch up with you and it won't be as easy as earlier. One thing I have to mention is that Kit does suffer a classic games problem where she won't stop the second you let go of the left thumb stick, whether this will bother you depends on the individual but I had to mention this because some of you may consider this as "floaty" controls and being a long time gamer it didn't bother me in the least. Exploration in the game yields the biggest reward but to obtain everything it will require skill, determination and experimentation to get to the secret areas and they are easy to miss... trust me I know! During the game you'll also meet Skiffy the Skiff, he's used to overcome some of the obstacles in your path and collect some out of reach Hex. Hex is used for buying health and stamina boosts, new free blades and costumes. The game consist of 13 level and each level can be cleared pretty quickly if your not exploring but can take a very long time when exploring each stage for treasure chests, Skiffs and Datapaks.

Blade Kitten episode 1 has a story worthy of it's comic counterpart with tasteful humour, and colourful characters. The game is fun and challenging but won't intimidate people until they start exploring, appropriate of all ages in my opinion and at AU$19.95/1200 MS points is worth every penny. The game can be finished in a short time but completing it will take hours depending on skill. Like the games of yore the length will be determined by the skill of the player and will keep you occupied for a long time thanks to the creative tricks required to obtain some of the items. I give it a 5/5 because even though it's pricey for a downloadable game it got plenty of content to keep you playing for a while and episode 2 will hopefully be coming out very soon so don't delete the game or your save file! This game isn't for everyone but it's a great game that deserve at least a try and since you need to download a trial for it on PS3 before buying the unlock data you can try before you buy and I think the Xbox 360 will have a demo for it as well. If you like old school style games like Shank, Limbo and Shadow Complex then Blade Kitten should satisfy you, if not then try before you buy.

Score 5/5